Wednesday, May 20, 2015

Keeping it simple/cheap...

Face it, the hardest part of doing the VolksCruiser thing is really about focus. It's easy to get distracted.

Pick up any sailing magazine, visit a cruising forum, or dock walk just about any marina and you'll be inundated with a staggering amount of pressure to conform and purchase shiny things you don't really need (with money you can't really afford to spend).

Which is why I tend to go on and on (like the proverbial broken record) on the importance of applying your need/want test to everything you do pretty much every step of the way and to be 100% honest throughout the process.

Yeah, I know it sounds simple but, in a consumerist society where shopping, for most, is considered a recreational pursuit, not buying stuff you don't need is not just a matter of swimming against the prevailing current it's heresy.

Need I remind you what usually befalls heretics?

I expect that if folks just applied the need/want process to their sailing/cruising expenditures that they'd save somewhere between 25-50% for starters with no need to go the DIY cheapseats route at all. That said, adopting a DIY cheapseats mindset would seriously turbocharge those savings to the max.

Which brings us around to, just possibly, the most important rule for happy, sustainable, and successful VolksCruising...

1 comment:

The Germans have a saying that translates (roughly), "what ya lack in brains, ya make up for in legs." Substitute 'wallet', in this case!

One challenge we constantly face and only sometimes overcome is creeping complexity... if we're doing this, THAT is in reach. And if that, we could take it one step further for such-and-so a benefit. In small, 'reasonable' steps we take ourselves from Reasonable to La-La Land.

When we're smart, it's back to the drawing board. If not, it's off to the bank. 8(